For those who want to try out the most recent Mesa graphics library 26.2, it’s finally easy to install in Ubuntu through the popular kisak-mesa fresh PPA.
Mesa is the user-space open-source graphics drivers and libraries let apps and games on Linux access to the GPU, especially for Intel/AMD GPUs.
The latest Mesa version so far is 26.2.x, while Ubuntu still provides the 26.0.x for Ubuntu 26.04 and 25.2.x for 24.04.
The new Mesa added support OpenCL 3.1 applications running with Apple AGX, Intel, AMD, Vulkan-based GPUs, and CPU software backends.
For Intel GPUs, the OpenCL implementation features improved performance for compute workloads. The Vulkan driver now provides synchronized GPU and CPU timestamp information. And, it now supports measuring frame display timing for the older Intel “Haswell” (Gen7) GPUs.
The changes for AMD GPUs also include compute workload improvements in the OpenCL driver. And, it now supports Vulkan split shader barriers, which can improve GPU scheduling and reduce synchronization stalls in compute workloads on AMD GFX12 GPUs.
The Vulkan driver (RADV) can now use AMD GPU hardware protected memory features on Vega 10 and newer GPUs. And, it now supports the extension, allowing the CPU to copy data directly to and from Vulkan images without using GPU copy commands.
The new version also many new extensions support for Arm Mali, and PowerVR GPUs, as well as some improvements for NVIDIA users. It as well include numerous bug-fixes through the 2 point releases. See the release note page for details.
How to Install Mesa 26.2 in Ubuntu
Without building from source, the popular kisak-mesa fresh PPA maintained by Kisak Missive, a developer from Valve the company behind Steam, finally updated with Mesa 26.2.x for Ubuntu 26.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Linux Mint 22.x.
Simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to launch a terminal window. Then run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kisak/kisak-mesa
You can then either launch “Software Updater” utility and install all the available updates, or run the commands below to get the latest Mesa graphics suite:
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
Finally, run either glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version" and/or vulkaninfo --summary to verify the driver version.
Restore Mesa to the Stock versions
For any reason, you may run the command below to install ppa-purge tool:
sudo apt install ppa-purge
Then, purge the PPA which will also downgrade Mesa to the previous default versions:
sudo ppa-purge ppa:kisak/kisak-mesa
Really nice.
can we get mutter and wayland update to
Sadly no. mutter and wayland are the core part of how GNOME provides its graphical desktop in Ubuntu.
Update them separately can break your system. The best choice is either use the latest Ubuntu releases (e.g., 26.10 scheduled for next month) or if you want switch to a rolling-release distribution such as Arch Linux.
Hi! Has this been tested on Ubuntu 26.04 or not?
https://launchpad.net/~kisak/+archive/ubuntu/kisak-mesa
Resolute (26.04) – Preliminary support (Not tested locally)
Have been using the package in my Ubuntu 26.04 laptop for more than a week. It’s running good in my case, though I only do basic web browsing and image editing, but not gaming.
yes ive used kisak-mesa since 22.04 and dist-upgrade to 24.04 + 26.04 (same original install as 22.04)
i upgraded from Mesa 26.1.7 to 26.2.2 without issues
now using 26.2.3-kisak-mesa
the PPA does state it is not tested on resolute. ive been using kisak on 26.04 since June without issues.
fwiw, a lot of software released is not tested on specific hardware or OS versions.
simply that it compiles successfully and runs on “similar” systems is enough
part of kisak delay for updating to 26.2.1 may have been retooling and adding new mesa features.
i was concerned for a month there when nothing new was happening
Kisak apparently works for Valve btw. its quite surprising he continues to support ubuntu like this. since ubuntu wont even support HWE newer mesa!
usually after every Mesa update i run a basic “does it pass” test with the two simplest benchmarks
glmark2 & vkmark
score numbers vary up and down frequently but a baseline test that it does infact work without error
i dont have any reliable conveyance test for opengl + vulkan to test all the possible tests
if it runs steam’s DXVK & VKD3D-proton in unrealengine5 then id say “IT WORKS”